For Unibail, Less From More

Rodamco Merger
Cut Office Exposure,
Helping Limit Risk

By

Catherine Bolgar Special to the WSJ

Updated April 30, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET

Close to a year after France's Unibail Holding bought Dutch retail giant Rodamco Europe to create the Continent's biggest public property company, a clear benefit to the deal is emerging that has little to do with the reasons given when the &euro;9.2 billion ($14.39 billion) transaction was announced.

Back then, executives of the two companies extolled the advantages of combining Unibail's strong track record for shopping-center development in France with Rodamco's portfolio of retail properties in other European...